We would like to clarify a few issues raised in last week’s article about the lack of referrals to the Bronx Youth Court, which our organization Youth Force runs.

The Youth Court serves as an alternative-to-court program for the city Department of Probation, diverting young people who would otherwise be tried in Family Court. While we would like to serve as many youth as possible through the Youth Court, we also recognize that there is a limited pool from which Probation can make referrals. To their credit, the department has done an incredible job screening the referrals made to us–of the 12 youth referred all but one successfully completed the program.